Kandinsky Sights & Sounds!

One of my favorite lessons do to at the beginning of the school year for kinders or first graders is based on the processes and artworks of Wassily Kandinsky. I talk to the children about Kandinsky and his sensory condition (called synesthesia - a mix-up of sensory processes - Kandinsky saw shapes and colors when he heard varying sounds). We look at some of his paintings and discuss the various lines, shapes, and colors that we see, and the children talk about what these elements make them think of.

Lambies Show Their Thanks with Gratitude Boxes

I wanted to do a project for Thanksgiving but wasn't up for incorporating the traditional food approach this year. There's just something morbid about making turkeys that are eventually oven-bound as a way of celebrating in art class. So after doing a little research and looking in my stash of supplies I decided to have the lambies create "gratitude boxes".

For this lesson, we started out by sitting together in a circle and taking turns saying what we are thankful for. The lambies had so much to say that we went around the circle twice - I love them so much!

Process Paintings are Beautiful!

Once again I am humbled by the exploratory and adventurous art-making attitudes of the lambies. This week I wanted to give them another chance just to play with color and different painting tools.

Painting with Nature's Paintbrushes

Here at the Lambies we paint with all sorts of different things. On this day back in June we painted with nature's brushes. 

Big Leaves Equal Big Fun

This year the focus at the lambies is the rainforest. I hadn't been there for a month because Mrs. Alma wanted some time to get the school prepped for the upcoming school year. I couldn't believe my eyes at all the beautiful additions to the place! Leave it to me though to forget to take pictures. I'll take some next week so you can see how lovely it looks.

Another Process Art Painting Day

Those little ones have pretty short attention spans - shocking, right? Sometimes I like to keep their interest by having several short steps in a project that they move through in one session to create an artwork. These days can be either a big disaster - key kids running around like slippery little ants avoiding any semblance of focus - or in this case they can really buckle down and keep their attention focused on the short little tasks at hand. The best part, IMHO, is that they are so focused on each step that the end result is a big surprise not only to me but to them as well!

Shapes and Colors - So Much Fun!

Our second process art project was a collage using cardboard, glue, and paint. This was a two-day project that turned out amazing!

Water Safety Poster Contest

All my elementary and middle school students are participating this year in California's annual Water Safety Poster contest (see details here). After a lesson on some important things to know about water safety, here are the results! I hope at least one of my students gets their artwork in the annual calendar.

Middle School:

The Joys of Painting Fruit

In a color scale exercise, my middle and high school students learned the value of using a color's complement (red/green, blue/orange, yellow/purple) instead of black to create different values and neutralize a color. To practice this, I gave each one of them a handout with photos of 3 fruits, each with a good light source and shadow:

Color Theory for Everyone!

So I've started teaching my middle and high school students about color and paint. Their first task was to paint in a color wheel with tints and shades. They have a full range of colors in their art packets but I only allowed them to use red, yellow, blue, black, and white for their color wheels.